Date Posted:08:52:22 04/12/17 Wed
I did not attend the game so I have no clue as to how either QB performed. The coverage of the spring game was almost non existent, likely on purpose. It's frustrating, but not unexpected.

Penn will return a ton of experience, but the QB situation is problematic and will not be settled until the preseason. The two who played lead roles this spring have never attempted a pass in a varsity game. We have some nice looking prospects coming in but they will be in a similar situation. Perhaps the most experienced is the kid who spent a year as a red shirt at Georgia and then played at a junior college in California last year.

Either way, there is a downside to having a 3 year starter graduate and sliding in an inexperienced player at a very crucial position. Even if Michael Collins were still on the team, the fact is that he too had very limited experience in mop up duty and only threw 2 passes in a Penn uniform. So QB is rightly a concern and a big question mark going into the season.

Date Posted:13:25:44 04/12/17 Wed
Of course you are correct, Asia, but this is really symptomatic of college sports. Every four years, your roster turns over. Ragone held the job for three years, which is unusual, but turnover is part of the challenge for any program and any coaching staff. Kids leave. Hopefully with a degree and an education but, whether you're an Ivy or a football factory, kids move on.

The worry that you are feeling now is a little more pronounced because of how important the quarterback position is, but it's still just the same old same old.

Date Posted:14:26:59 04/12/17 Wed
I would also say the Offensive Line is a ? Lost some to graduation and apparently a few who didn't come back for next year. The defense should be very very good and will put them in a position for another Ivy championship.

Date Posted:08:48:41 04/13/17 Thu
Actually if Penn has a QB who breaks in at the level Torgersen did in 2014, the team will be in excellent shape. We should be so fortunate.

There were many problems in 2014, but the quality of QB play was not one of them. In fact - the biggest issues had little to do with any of the players on the field, although to the outside world that was never apparent. Put simply, there were changes that were somewhat overdue and thankfully they are now in place. There is a reason Penn competed well the past two years and it's not because somehow our recruiting went from poor to very good. Other factors were in play.

Date Posted:13:10:39 04/14/17 Fri
2014
Penn was the second worst Defense in the Ivy League
gave up 31.9 pts/game
472 yds/game
200rushing yds/game
25 passing TDs on season
and worst Pass Effic Def

The change... the secondary coach/DC became HC

More then one member of Bags staff was not doing everything they could do to elongate his stay in Philly or make sure he went out on a high note. To say Priore's reputation has benefited from 2014 being a down year only draws light to the really poor job he did that season on defense

Date Posted:15:35:57 04/14/17 Fri
These comments are spot on. Priore has surrounded himself with top notch coordinators and assistants and has let them do their jobs. Now we'll see how well they recruit as the last of the Bagnoli era graduate.

Date Posted:16:47:37 04/17/17 Mon
That is exactly the type of comparison that came to mind in replacing Torgersen. Penn seems to find guys who can really play. They may not pull it together every season but they tend to find the right kind of talent. Same can't be said for Buddy Teevens who is iffy when it comes to finding the right guys. A few home runs but not nearly as many as Penn brings in (no matter who is doing the recruiting for them).

Date Posted:21:39:13 04/17/17 Mon
we have a returning QB and Penn doesn't

I am pretty optimistic about the Dart team this fall, 3 stud RB's, good returning group on OL. Maybe best WR crew in the league, although "elementary my dear" is the best Offensive player in the league who is going to throw him the ball. Defense who knows but strength up front especially if "Stonewall" has recovered, plus solid players on the back end

I'll take my chances and would be willing to up my bet with Foehi to a dozen Pro V's instead of just a sleeve and remember neither one of his clubs has logoed balls so I am already at a 10-15 dollar disadvantage

Watch out for Dartmouth my fellow citizens if it wasn't for the fact that Harvard has "vivid" back I would say we might be the favs

Date Posted:09:28:40 04/18/17 Tue
Torgersen did in fact have inflated numbers as a sophomore due to the fact that we were chasing much of the time, just as Dartmouth did last year. He attempted 125 less passes as a junior, we shared the Ivy title and he was All Ivy. That's why statistics can sometimes be very misleading.

The difference of course is that Penn fans weren't arguing that he was All Ivy calibre that sophomore season despite his stats. The team was clearly dysfunctional in 2014, and my understanding is that it had little to do with the kids on the field and more to do with the adults running the team.

The defense was clearly a big problem, but the guy running the defense was the same guy who led very good Penn defenses over the years and has shared two Ivy titles since being elevated to HC and realigning the staff.

I do think breaking in a new QB will be a challenge. Harvard seems to do it more successfully than most. Penn needs to mimic their success.

The fear I have with a new QB is overly simplified game plans and a predictable offense - not having some decent talent to work with.

Penn even had a bit of that last year even with Torgersen. We got manhandled by Princeton for several reasons, but a big part of it was that they were really well prepared to defend our tendencies on offense and we didn't have effective counter measures. Logic dictates we should have had a few with so many experienced skill players on the offensive side of the ball.

Hopefully things will settle down once they get through the preseason, but it's hard to feel fully confident with no established QB at this point in time. I think this league is very much QB driven among the top tier competitors.

Date Posted:09:36:56 04/18/17 Tue
Asia, how about laying off Al for a while. Your last two posts, not particularly thinly veiled, come with particular ill grace. Al, to his credit, continues to speak highly of Penn. At Columbia, we think Al has done a great job to date, and we couldn't be happier with the progress he has made.

Date Posted:09:44:03 04/18/17 Tue
The only reason Dartmouth guys were arguing for Heneghan to get All-Ivy based on his stats was because "stats" was the justification for bypassing Williams for first-team All Ivy the year before.

Personally, I think the league got it right last year with the All-Ivy QBs. Even though Heneghan had more yards than anyone, he wasn't one of the best QBs in the league (although he certainly wasn't bad either).

The two seem fairly unrelated. I only get to see limited pieces of opponents games against other teams. Williams was always great against us and, based on what I saw, better than the Harvard QB who was POY. But - I think he got nicked a bit from what I read and his performance tailed off a bit.

He was definitely very talented and was dangerous with both his arm and his feet before being slowed a bit by injury.

I would have had him on my All Ivy team, but again, I don't get to see the whole picture.

Date Posted:11:28:14 04/18/17 Tue
Asia - you are wise enough to see the forest through the trees.
Yes Priore was a capable DC in earlier championship seasons and a very competent recruiter.

But if you do not recognize that his obsession with becoming the next Head Coach at Penn started undermining Bagnoli then you are blind. From more then one source I have heard that personal agendas led staff members to do less then their best on both sides of the ball in order to accelerate Bagnoli's retirement and set a low bar for Priore to trump in his first years. The offensive talent left behind, that was productive but young in 2014, was the key to back to back championships. Priore hired great coaches, the Defense is organized and well coached, the Offense is much more open and creative.

Bagnoli will do fine at Columbia and Penn has a tradition that is built to last so both sides are better parted. But to not share responsibility for 2014 (and even 2013) with Priore is just blind homerism.

Date Posted:12:21:29 04/18/17 Tue
I totally agree with you, but the staff was divided and ineffective and there were powerful forces lobbying for a major shake up. But look more behind the scenes to understand where the real power lies. That is not to say that Priore didn't have ambitions and wasn't part of the overall dysfunction that ultimately evidenced itself on the field. Winning football requires all cylinders to be firing properly and Penn was in disarray. The talent was not 2-5 talent, yet that's where we ended up.

Over and over you see teams misfire both on the college level and the pro level when everyone isn't on the same page or have competing agendas. Penn ultimately took action to correct that problem. The result of those actions to date have been very positive and the impact of changes made hard to dismiss.

Date Posted:15:58:49 04/18/17 Tue
This is fascinating stuff. We fans who simply watch from the outside do not usually hear or see about the internal dynamics of a coaching staff. To learn of a coordinator and/or other coaches actively working to undermine their head coach -- especially one with the tenure and success of Bagnoli -- rises to the level of gripping drama.

Asia, I thought that the 28-0 score in the P-P game overstated Princeton's margin of superiority on the field. The Tigers blocked a punt on Penn's first series and scored on the play. The entire second half, Penn was "chasing:" throwing more than they should have, going for it on fourth down, etc. Despite the lopsided margin, I did not think Penn was manhandled.

That's not to say Princeton wasn't the best team in the Ivies last season. They were. Indeed, Penn was very lucky that Princeton was tripped up by Harvard mid-season. By the end of the year, the Tigers had continued to improve, while Harvard had merely tread water or worse. Had Princeton played Harvard later than game six, I think the Tigers would have been outright champs.

Date Posted:17:12:58 04/18/17 Tue
Farmington - I didn't say anyone was actively trying to undermine anybody else. I said the staff was dysfunctional. A lot goes into winning and there were components normally needed to win consistently that just weren't there in 2014.

As for the Princeton game last year, perhaps manhandled was an overstatement. It felt like the Tigers were in our huddle on all those missed 3rd and 4th down drive killers. So many passes got knocked down at the line of scrimmage by their DLs who sensed where Torgersen was going every time. They were very well prepared and anticipated plays based on our tendencies. I knew what was coming. Obviously they did as well. They played a great game against us, perhaps not as lopsided as the 28-0 score would indicate.

Date Posted:17:40:58 04/18/17 Tue
Dartmouth was ahead at the half in New Jersey. In the second half, the wheels came off. Fumbles and interceptions did us in. Princeton did indeed kick our butts... but in the second half.

You want examples of total domination? Check out the 2014 and 2010 D-P games. :)

Date Posted:21:16:05 04/18/17 Tue
Give it up for once man, sawhorse dollar or not, game wasn't close. They kicked our butts. I was there you weren't.
I sat right in front of Bavaro's family and watched his mom agonize as the game went on.